But Business Administration graduate Adil Al Zaidi accused the government of not delivering on its plans.

“It is just empty promises but no action on the creation of these jobs,” he said, adding that he had been unemployed for 18 months.

“It is too long to wait. It is frustrating not to get a job for that long.”

The government said 60 per cent of the promised new jobs would be in the public sector, while private sector companies would be provided with incentives to hire citizens instead of expatriates. It did not elaborate on what these incentives would be.

“So far, we have not received any incentives from the government, and we will employ more Omanis if there were incentives. However, the government needs to make it clear,” said Hamed Al Hammadi, managing director of Capital Construction Company.

Mr Al Hammadi said the government had sent private companies the names of Omanis looking for work, asking them to employ them — a move he criticised.

“We cannot just absorb them like that. Every company has its own employment plan and cannot just take staff on demand,” he said.

Expats vastly outnumber Omanis in the private sector. The latest manpower ministry figures showed only 237,900 Omanis working in the private sector at the end of September last year compared with 1.87 million expats.